Trust Me, Dr. Boamah, Only Nayelegate Can Win The "Drug Politics" War
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
Nov. 24, 2014
E-mail: [email protected]
He definitely is right on the money, when Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah caustically declares that the key players of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) cannot win an electioneering campaign war based on the politics of drug-trafficking in the lead-up to the 2016 general election (See "NPP Can't Win 2016 With 'Drug Politics' - Omane-Boamah" Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 11/24/14).
The logical question to ask here, though, is this: Who are playing politics with the global drug menace in Ghana, if not the front-row leaders of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), including Dr. Omane-Boamah, of course? And if he had been paying sedulous attention to the British High Commissioner in Ghana, President Mahama's communications pointman would have long learned to his utter horror and shame that, indeed, the government of the so-called National Democratic Congress has been up and doing in all aspects of our national life, that is if one accepts the curious premise of the NDC's being a progressive government, except on the foreign-policy front.
And in respect of the latter, according to the ground-zero Brits, the Mahama government has actually worsened the record, image and reputation of Ghana in the fight against international drug-trafficking. Indeed, were the Communications Minister a conscientious leader, Dr. Omane-Boamah would not have been so irritatingly quibbling with British diplomatic authorities over whether Ms. Nayele Ametefe, the Austrian-Ghanaian woman busted for toting 12.5 kgs of commercial-grade cocaine at London's Heathrow Airport, had been traveling on a Ghanaian diplomatic passport or one routinely issued to ordinary Ghanaian citizens by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Put into simple terms, why has Dr. Omane-Boamah been so morbidly reticent to talk about the main and relevant issue at stake, which regards the question of whether, indeed, Ms. Ametefe had been officially permitted the use of the VIP-Lounge at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) as her exit, or departure, route out of the country.
True, the stomach-churning busting of Mr. Eric Amoateng, the convicted drug baron and former New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Nkoranza-North, in the home region of First Lady Lordina Mahama, ought to give pause and a situp on the part of any NPP leader gleefully poised to playing up Nayelegate as a juicy electioneering campaign skit or cantata. Still, Mr. Rojo Mettle-Nunoo and other vanguard NDC leaders' unenviable track-record of providing a safe haven in Ghana for Colombian drug lords and fugitives, generously furnished with Ghanaian "comfort women," or courtesans, does not warrant any pretense to self-righteous indignation on the part of Mahama pit-bulls like Dr. Omane-Boamah.
The fact of the matter is that the New Patriotic Party has a far better record of managing the country's economy and wealth and human resources than the incessantly bumbling leaders of the National Democratic Congress can fathom or even boast of. It is also rather pathetic for Dr. Omane-Boamah to accuse NPP leaders of having started "a battle on the drug trade which they cannot win." Is Dr. Omane-Boamah hereby implying that rather than aptly and forthrightly call out the Mahama regime for deliberately facilitating illegal drug-trafficking, a la Nayelegate, that Ghana's main opposition party leaders ought to be patting the backs of the likes of the Communications Minister for throwing Ghana's once enviable image and reputation to the dogs?
I am also assuming that when he vows that the "NDC will marshall all its resources to prove to Ghanaians that they have been more potent in the fight against drugs in the country," such purported "potency" includes the criminal facilitation of Ms. Nayele Ametefe's "VIP-Lounging" of 12.5 kgs of commercial-grade cocaine (valued at $5 million) out of the country.
Once again, Dr. Omane-Boamah needs to Q-tip his eustachian tube thoroughly, sit up and critically and objectively listen to the British High Commissioner impugn the credibility of the Akrasi Sarpong-headed NACOB, and then sober up to the reality of times.